Manuscripts D and E, of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', record a freak accident (dated to 978, though probably applying to 977): "This year all the oldest counsellors of England fell at Calne [Wiltshire] from an upper floor; but the holy Archbishop Dunstan stood alone upon a beam. Some were dreadfully bruised: and some did not escape with life."  The meeting at Calne was, apparently, one of a number of synods held to address the grievances of the secular canons (clerks), who had been enthusiastically expelled during the monastic reforms of Edgar's reign.

Adam of Bremen (d.c.1081), in a scholium, states that Edward ("a very holy man") was murdered by his stepmother, so that she could secure the throne for her own son. Christine E. Fell, in 'Edward, King and Martyr', suggests that Osbern of Canterbury, in a 'Life' of St.Dunstan (written c.1090), seems to remark that Edward was "killed by his stepmother's crime" in such a casual manner that he was "mentioning a well-known fact, nothing new or disputable."

William of Malmesbury writing c.1125: "... king Edward conducted himself with becoming affection to his infant brother and his stepmother; retained only the name of king, and gave them the power; followed the footsteps of his father's piety, and gave both his attention and his heart to good counsel. The woman, however, with a stepmother's hatred, began to meditate a subtle stratagem, in order that not even the title of king might be wanting to her child, and to lay a treacherous snare for her son-in-law, which she accomplished in the following manner. He was returning home, tired with the chase, and gasping with thirst from the exercise, while his companions were following the dogs in different directions as it happened, when hearing that they dwelt in a neighbouring mansion, the youth proceeded thither at full speed, unattended and unsuspecting, as he judged of others by his own feelings. On his arrival, alluring him to her with female blandishment, she made him fix his attention upon herself, and after saluting him, while he was eagerly drinking from the cup which had been presented, the dagger of an attendant pierced him through. Dreadfully wounded, with all his remaining strength he spurred his horse in order to join his companions; when one foot slipping, he was dragged by the other through the winding paths, while the streaming blood gave evidence of his death to his followers. Moreover, they then commanded him to be ingloriously interred at Wareham, grudging him even holy ground when dead, as they had envied him his royal dignity while living. They now publicly manifested their extreme joy, as if they had buried his memory with his body; but God's all-seeing eye was there, who ennobled the innocent victim by the glory of miracles; so much is human outweighed by heavenly judgement, for lights were there shown from above."

William of Malmesbury appears to have derived his story from the 'Passio et Miracula Sancti Eadwardi Regis et Martyris'. Assuming the author of the 'Passio' is being truthful when he tells of miracles which occurred during the lifetime of his informants, Christine E. Fell ('Edward, King and Martyr') reasons: "... he must have been writing in the last quarter of the eleventh century or the first few years of the twelfth." (no extant version is earlier than the 12th century). Although she admits there is "no very positive evidence for attributing the Passio to any known hagiographer", Professor Fell tends towards the idea that it was the work of Goscelin - in which case: "... it seems probable that it was written during the same decade as the rest of his work on the saints of the Midlands and Western England, i.e. 1070-1080 ..."

In February 979, Edward's body was discovered. It was taken, first, to the church at Wareham (on 13th February), and then translated ("with great honour"), by Ealdorman Ælfhere of Mercia, to Shaftesbury Abbey (on 18th February). Despite Wulfstan's statement that it had been burned, the 'Vita Sancti Oswaldi' remarks on the body's uncorrupted nature - a common manifestation of saintliness. In a charter of 1001 (S 899), in which Æthelred granted Bradford on Avon to the nuns of Shaftesbury (to be used as a refuge from Viking raids), he says he makes the gift "to Christ and to his Saint, namely my brother Edward, whom the Lord himself deigns to exult in our days by many signs of virtue, after his blood was shed".  In the same year, on 20th June, Edward's relics were enshrined within Shaftesbury Abbey. Professor Fell writes: "It seems likely that the 1001 ceremony and charter were the result of popular pro-Edward feeling or episcopal pressure as soon as Ælfthryth's power was removed." (Ælfthryth died after 998 and before 1002).

Professor Fell suggests that a 'Life' of Edward, "from accession to final resting place", was composed, at Shaftesbury, shortly after 1001. She argues that this 'Life' was used as a source for the 'Passio'.  Professor Fell maintains that: "The author of the Passio first or second redaction, may be an unreliable historian, adding little to our knowledge of actual events, but the Passio is a primary source, and it is on the Passio that the Edward cult is based, and from the Passio that almost all writing on Edward derives."  Although clearly derived from the 'Passio' story, a note by Henry of Huntingdon (probably writing between 1125 and 1130) presents it in a somewhat garbled form: "It is reported that his stepmother, that is the mother of King Ethelred [Æthelred], stabbed him with a dagger while she was in the act of offering him a cup to drink."  Walter Map (late-12th century) distorts the story even more, claiming that Ælfthryth "first gave him poison, and, when this failed of its effect, had him slain at Shaftesbury by the soldiers of his company".  Two lengthier variations on the 'Passio' theme, each presenting a unique twist to the tale, are told in the chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford (compiled around the second quarter of the 13th century) and by Geffrei Gaimar (about 1140). John of Wallingford says that Edward was stabbed by his step-mother, who then "wrapped it [Edward's body], it is said, in lead, and for a long time hid it in the river Stour".  In Gaimar's variant, Edward "had a dwarf, Wolstanet, who knew how to dance and bound, how to leap and tumble, and play several other games". On the fateful day, Edward commands Wolstanet to perform. The dwarf refuses and rides off "to the house of Elstruet [Ælfthryth]". Edward follows and the scene in which he is stabbed (by "some one, I know not who") ensues.

A 1008 law-code of Æthelred states: "the councillors have determined that St.Edward's Day shall be celebrated throughout England on the 18th of March".

Simon Keynes, in 'The Diplomas of Æthelred 'the Unready' 978-1016', writes: "The annal for 978 in MS 'C' implies that Æthelred was crowned in the same year as Edward was murdered, contradicting the annal for 979; annals from different sources may have been conflated, and the author of the 978 entry may simply have believed that Æthelred's coronation was a natural corollary of his accession."

Simon Keynes ('The Diplomas of Æthelred 'the Unready' 978-1016'): "The very fact that Æthelred's coronation was delayed for over a year after his succession may reflect the general confusion and dismay occasioned by the crime, for had it been planned at a high level, in order that Æthelred should become king, one might expect a hasty coronation to seal the matter."  Professor Keynes raises the possibility that it was the discovery of Edward's body, and its burial ("with great honour") at Shaftesbury, in February 979: "... that finally settled the matter and set in motion the train of events that led to Æthelred's coronation ... on 4 May following."  Sir Frank Stenton ('Anglo-Saxon England'): There is nothing to support the allegation ... that Queen Ælfthryth had plotted her stepson's death."

Shaftesbury Abbey became a victim of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, in 1539, but St.Edward's remains were said to have been hidden before Henry's agents arrived. In 1931, a casket, containing bones, was unearthed on the site of the Abbey Church. The bones were examined by a surgeon, who found that they were of a youth, and exhibited damage consistent with the manner in which Edward is purported to have died. John Wilson-Claridge, who excavated the bones (and whose family then owned the site), spent many years trying to find them a suitable home. He was insistent that the bones should be recognised as the relics of a saint, and that a shrine should be established for them. The Russian Orthodox Church in Exile accepted the conditions, and, in September 1984, the bones were enshrined in a former Anglican chapel at Brookwood cemetery, Woking, Surrey. A small monastic community, the Saint Edward Brotherhood, is based at Brookwood.